


Ibiki - Bronze Thread

by RoeDusk



Series: Tapestry - Prologue [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 20:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11216076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoeDusk/pseuds/RoeDusk
Summary: Ibiki remembers his precious people differently than most of the Village.





	Ibiki - Bronze Thread

It was strange to be the forgotten parts of a famous legacy. Everyone knew the Fourth had trained under Jiraiya of the Sannin, they even knew the names of Minato’s students most of the time, but they didn’t remember he’d had a wife, or teammates that he’d been close to his whole life. They remembered Kakashi, but they didn’t remember the Fourth had been close to his teammates’ genin as well.

In all honestly Ibiki had trouble remembering that most people didn’t know the Yellow Flash as a painfully excitable bookworm, hopeless romantic, who saw friends and family as more important than blood or revenge. They remembered the impressive figure he’d cut in his personal Hokage’s robe, but not the fact that he’d owned the damn thing, without the script, for over six years. It had been a gag gift from Ibiki’s sensei, but Minato had taken it out the night before his inauguration to wear in his memory. It had been Kushina’s idea to print the “Fourth Hokage” on it, though.

A pretty typical Minato reaction to Kato-sensei’s sarcasm actually. He would have given that put-upon sigh of his, but smiled nonetheless. More than anything else it was hard for Ibiki to remember that most people didn’t even know who his sensei was, let alone think of him before they did the Hokage.

It was Kato-sensei who had sat them down that first day, in spite of not wanting to train a team, and told them they would be sent back to the Academy if they couldn’t convince him they could work together. Who gave them 10 minutes to come up with a plan to prove him wrong rather than trying to trick them into it. Who grumbled when they pulled it off but passed them as he’d promised.

When they met up for team dinner they learned the other teams had been given a bell test, Minato’s version the same 2-bell version Jiraiya had given his team, and Mikoto’s a 3-bell version. Kato-sensei had complained about pervert-brainwashing and gotten attacked by Kushina on her teammate’s behalf. Minato and Shibi tried to stop her while the rest of her team laughed, and the genin made a mental note not to tick her off.

Kato-sensei continued to be a sincere teacher. Hizashi and Gen helped train wherever they could, mostly for Tenchou’s sake, and the rest of the adults showed up to help every so often, but it was Kato-sensei who made sure they were never left confused. Who made sure that even if they weren’t the genin everyone talked about in hushed whispers they were never left to flounder. He even made a point to switch teams for a few days when Minato or Mikoto could explain what they were learning better than he could. Ibiki couldn’t have asked for a better sensei, even after everything went wrong.

Tensions were coming to a head, but their whole team was still just genin, not to be sent anywhere on their own or even close to the front lines. Kato-sensei had tried to keep them in the village as well, but even genin and little known jounin were needed in the field as events marched steadily towards war.

Konmaru managed to catch a whiff of them and shout a warning. Enough to force their attackers to move early, but not enough to give them an advantage in escaping. They were bloodline hunters, clearly targeting Tenchou’s eyes, and Kato-sensei threw himself between them and his team, ordering them to run. Konmaru broke off to protect Tenchou, while Ibiki and Yemon held back to protect the flank, only to get taken down ruthlessly before blacking out. To this day Ibiki hasn’t gotten the story of how Konmaru and Tenshou escaped. He doesn’t blame them, no matter what they Hyuuga thinks, but perhaps it’s better they don’t speak anymore.

Because Kato-sensei had died in front of him, fighting to the last trying to protect him, to get all of them to safety. Ibiki and Yemon had been captured, tortured for information on Konoha and the Hyuuga compound. And Tenshou had never forgiven himself for it.

Ibiki remembers blacking out repeatedly, to his captors’ great annoyance. And he thinks he can remember Yemon yelling at someone, even begging. He hopes he’s wrong, but he’s always wondered if the attack on the Hyuuga heir all those years later meant his teammate hadn’t died when he disappeared, just been relocated as the better prospect.

No matter, he’d never been able to find out.

Because the next thing he remembers is waking up in shock and pain, Konmaru looming over him, covered in blood. It was the first time he dared hope he might survive. It was agonizing to be pulled over the nin-dog’s shoulder and carried to the infiltration team, but he held onto alertness with every fiber of his being. Even in this state he could tell the enemy nin were close behind. Konmaru shrugged him off into the hands of the Konoha medic before throwing himself back the way they came with a howl. Ibiki blacked out when the medic turned to run.

He never saw the nin-dog again.

Waking in Konoha had been an ordeal. They weren’t sure he’d survive the injuries to his skull. He wasn’t sure he wasn’t stuck in a genjutsu. Tenchou refused to see him, out of a mix of revulsion and guilt, and anyone else who he might have believed was dead. Sensei’s teammates came to visit him. Minato fussed while Kushina made dire threats - against their enemies and him - if he didn’t survive. Mikoto offered him a place to stay, assuring him a home next door to Konoha’s Military Police Force would be safe. Hizashi arrived after she left, sitting beside him awkwardly, trying to figure out what to say and repeatedly cutting himself off while Gen fussed over his injuries and tried to get Tenshou to visit.

It was Shibi’s visit that finally convinced him it wasn’t a genjutsu. The Aburame’s hands had been shaking, just slightly, when he reached out to check Ibiki’s pulse. Just a small tremor, easily overlooked by those who didn’t know the man, but not something an enemy nin would ever think to attribute to the ‘emotionless’ Aburame. Ibiki hadn’t even realized the other man cared that much until he saw it himself.

Shibi had just lost his best friend, and Ibiki had just lost both his sensei and his entire team. Neither of them wanted others prodding at those losses. Which was probably why Shibi, out of everyone who visited, didn’t try to get him to talk. Instead the Aburame shifted the visitor’s chair so his back was up against the bed and kept watch, planting kikaichu on Ibiki and around the room for extra security. Sometimes he would speak of Minato’s latest failed courting attempt, or Team Mikoto’s latest D-rank mishap. Slowly Ibiki came to know his sensei’s friends better than he’d known his own team.

He almost asked, in a quiet moment, for stories of Kato-sensei, but the thought of knowing what he missed even clearer made him abandon the impulse. He’d only let himself give in years later, after other losses had come and gone, trying to make sure Shibi himself wouldn’t break by giving him stories of good memories to hang onto. They were a good thing for both of them to hear.

In the meantime he healed, turned down Mikoto’s offer of a place to stay, and let her help him find an apartment after weeks of nagging. He studied psychology and genjutsu as his skull slowly hardened again, wanting to train in every way there was to gather intelligence that was an alternate to brute force. He would plant his feet and prove that torture was neither the easiest nor the best way to do information extraction.

And when the memories, or the whispers, are too loud he hides away in the guestroom in Shibi’s home, stopping in for tea and companionable silence on better days. Shibi is the one who helped him understand his new assignment as home-defence, supported his insistence on taking the chunin-exam in spite of everything, becoming a mentor and a friend all in one. In turn Ibiki was the first to learn of Utami, when the other came to him in a panic to ask for dating advice. Though he wasn’t sure why the other thought he’d have any idea they muddled through ok. And Utami was the one who finally gave voice to the promise that their home was his home, whenever he needed it.

Ibiki had just been recommended for jounin, post-war, when the Kyuubi attacked. He remembers the panic as overwhelming chakra radiated through the very air. Remembers being relegated to evacuating civilians while shinobi he’d known and trained under went to fight a battle they couldn’t win. Most of them never returned.

He remembers helping to carry an old man the last leg of the way, entering the shelter to find somewhere to put him down, and coming back out just in time to see his commander seal him in. The seals cut him off for the rest of the battle, unable to help or even know what was happening outside. Until an Anbu finally arrived to let them out, and spread news of the Hokage’s sacrifice.

For a few months the whole village was in shock, scrambling to hold itself together. Finally the Third stepped up, coming back from retirement to keep them from spiraling downward any further. Ibiki got promoted several clearance levels, to make up for forces lost, positioned as a senior interrogator for T&I under Inoichi Yamanaka. Newly Clan Head himself, the poor man now had an entire division to manage as well. They got on surprisingly well, and set about reorganizing T&I into a mental investigation team. Much easier for Ibiki’s arguments to hold weight with a Yamanaka backing him.

He met Shino for the first time 4 months after he was born, delayed by a retrieval mission, and panicked when Utami settled the baby in his hands. Shibi smiled at his horrified expression, the first Ibiki had seen from him since the Kyuubi attack, then gave him some pointers. Honestly, Shino had them all wrapped around his fingers, it was a miracle he hadn’t grown up completely spoiled. Things were finally settling again, giving Ibiki time between missions to settle into his new precious one’s life. To visit Hizashi and Gen for tea and talk economics with Mikoto.

Then Utami and Gen went out on a mission and never came back. Attending yet another funeral was hard, but watching Hizashi fall apart was even harder. By contrast Shibi managed to become even more functional in the grip of grief, making time to keep Hizashi from drowning in alcohol, make sure Neji had a lunch at school, etc. He sought Ibiki out to make sure the younger nin was ok, and when Ibiki came to check on him in turn he learned the older man had even taken in Shikuro’s orphaned son. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t grieving, and in between looking in on Hizashi himself Ibiki made sure the Aburame had someone looking after him as well.

Making sure he knew he and Shino hadn’t been forgotten.

A few weeks later they found an information leak in T&I and suddenly the whole department was running double shifts trying to track it down and stop it. Rumors of who was at fault had to be carefully controlled, giving them a chance to see who reacted and flush them out that way. But there was no movement in any of the other nations in response, no mobilization or restructuring, not even a hint that they’d heard the rumors. Nothing to reveal the traitor, and there was at least one, intercepting their reports. Someone was stealing classified information right from Konoha’s heart and no one could figure out who.

In the reshuffling that followed they missed all the warning signs for the Hyuuga Incident going missing. Ibiki remembered writing the request for Anbu to keep an eye on the envoy that never made it to the Hokage’s desk. Coming in the next morning to learn intelligence hadn’t even been requested before making the decision was a hard pill to swallow. Ibiki forgoes sleep that night to visit Shibi, both of them sitting shoulder-to-shoulder and not knowing what to say. He checks in on the older ninja more now, worried about him shattering, and Shibi gives him a small smile whenever he does but doesn’t comment.

T&I was sorting through everyone one at a time, making sure they were loyal, when Torune went missing. The Council shut down Shibi’s request for an investigation, leaving Ibiki without permission to help. Shibi assured him the Military Police were looking into it, but it wasn’t hard to notice he was upset. Ibiki looked into it as best he could before Inoichi took him aside and asked him to stop. His clan had lost a child shortly after the Kyuubi attack, and he was certain the lack of movement from the council was a cover up for a secret investigation. Ibiki had to acknowledge that his side mission wasn’t helping the mole investigation, so he stopped.

At least until he helped apprehend several would-be-kidnappers while he was headed home past the Hyuuga Compound. Hiashi tried to shut him out of the investigation after taking the prisoners off his hands, so Ibiki went to Fugaku for answers. Mikoto called Shibi when he showed up and by that afternoon he was seated in the Uchihas’ dining room getting the story he hadn’t been able to pursue in T&I. Torune had been kidnapped and the Council was covering it up. The Hyuuga were being targeted as well, likely for the same reason Shisui Uchiha’s eyes had been stolen when he was murdered. Ibiki had the sinking feeling that Inoichi wasn’t going to see that Yamanaka boy ever again.

This time when he went back he took more care in his investigation, accessing T&I’s secret report on Root after months of planning. But there was nothing to find. One of their department’s biggest secrets didn’t even have the perpetrator's name, omitted by the order of the Hokage so long as the group was disbanded in return for anonymity. The Third had been played for a fool, and it only cost the lives of the entire Uchiha Clan.

Shibi did break down then, with Sasuke safely stowed away in the third guest room. He cried in private, once the boys had gone to bed, and Ibiki tried to hold him together in return. The last of his team was gone, and Ibiki realized in shock that anyone left was only in more danger than ever before. Whoever was behind this, they would destroy everything in their way, and Ibiki wasn’t going to let his precious people lose anything else.

He began what would amount to a 10 year counterintelligence campaign against Shimura Danzo, of all people. Shibi might tear himself apart trying to keep them all together, so Ibiki would make sure anyone who came after his, their, family got taken down before they even got close.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Um... outch?
> 
> Not sure what else to say. I like Ibiki, he deserves some hugs.


End file.
